The invention relates to tires having unequal bead diameters as shown and described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,018,597; 2,108,329, and British Pat. No. 1,275,409, and especially tires with unequal bead diameters and equal contour lengths where roughly one-half the width of the tread plus one sidewall is equal in length to one-half the width of the tread plus the other sidewall. The invention is directed to providing an improved method of molding a tire of this type.
Briefly stated, the invention is in a method of building a tire comprising a pair of annular beads with unequal bead diameters, and contour lengths which are substantially equal, the contour lengths of the sidewalls of the tire being measured along the neutral axis of the carcass plies between the center axis of the beads and a plane CP containing the mid-circumferential centerline of the tread, such plane hereinafter referred to as the centerplane. The tread is unsymmetrically molded in relation to a plane bisecting the space between the annular beads of unequal diameters, and the lateral edges of the tread are molded in radially offset relation to the center axis of the mold, or beads.